Horrifying Halloween Writing Contest [Winners Announced]

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.
- Edgar Allan Poe

What of that mind that roams the darker halls, violates the shuttered room and gazes upon fear he never knew? Shall we now redeem his soul for courage? Or is it better to scorn the foolishness that keyed his mortality?

Lest we fault that one last step before the abyss, all things being known are not what they seem.

Hell yeah.

reply to post by EyeHeartBigfoot


OH, GOD!! NO, PLEASE...NOT THAT!!!

Originally posted by BlackPoison94


Well my dear, the specialities today are either the bunny flavoured caramel custard served with Gimme_Some_Truth, the honey-coated Djarums cheesecake or the BT Gulab Jamun.

Your choice o_O

I wondered why some one was gnawing on my foot this morning....

Haha... great idea.

I love horror stories... ;D

I like writing, but I don't have much free time to do it anymore.
Anyway, will keep an eye on this thread .

reply to post by plutoxgirl


Lets see... around 50 into 1000 is 20, right?

20 words a day before the contest ends. I dunno. It sounds kinda do-able, but then I don't have a real job or time-consuming stuff to do, so I guess I can understand somebody not having the extra time if they did.

Maybe the next contest, eh, plutoxgirl?

I'm still new here, so here's a question on "short" stories.

Looks like a 1,000 word minimum on this Halloween contest, seems reasonable.

What's the maximum? Not that I want to publish a novel or anything, just wondering what still counts as "short". Maybe a rule I missed?

I've never really tried "horror" before, but sometimes I find that I get verbose. What if things got rolling, and 10,000 words later, you know... it could happen, right?

Anyway, thanks for the contest. I've never entered one before, maybe it's good to have little motivations come along. Otherwise, some of us might never even try.

JR

Would like to enter but I can't start a new thread as of yet.

reply to post by illuminotreal


Only 4 posts to go, illuminotreal. That's not much. To help you getting there, let me know how scary your story is going to be on a scale from 1 to 10.

It's a 25. It tuned my granny's hair gray.

It's a hard 25. It turned my granny's hair gray and made Obama renounce his Kenyan citizenship for fear of the horros that are contained within it.

MAn, do souble posts count??

Originally posted by illuminotreal
MAn, do souble posts count??

Only if they contain completely new words to the English language.

reply to post by illuminotreal


ha, I love how that was done. Made me smile.

So 25 on a scale of 1 to 10 huh? I HAVE to read something that scary!

Originally posted by masqua
reply to post by plutoxgirl

 

Lets see... around 50 into 1000 is 20, right?

20 words a day before the contest ends. I dunno. It sounds kinda do-able, but then I don't have a real job or time-consuming stuff to do, so I guess I can understand somebody not having the extra time if they did.

Maybe the next contest, eh, plutoxgirl?

Hey Masqua!

LOL
You are right, it does sounds kinda do-able... but there is a tiny litttle thing to take into account:
INSPIRATION- and lately; I've been lacking it for stories ;D

Plus my inspiration comes unexpectedly- like -"BAM! - I need to write this".
*throws coffee away, and looks desperate for a pen- (which is never in the right place)*- and No, I don't like writing on the laptop/pc. I like the old way =D

argh -
anyway

With that said- I cant force it to flow before that final date.
And my daily routine, studying, work, etc- does not help to get in the right mood. LOL

So, yeah, maybe next contest- who knows.

What I can asure you is, I'd be an avid reader of other's horror stories.

Originally posted by plutoxgirl

Plus my inspiration comes unexpectedly- like -"BAM! - I need to write this".
*throws coffee away, and looks desperate for a pen- (which is never in the right place)*- and No, I don't like writing on the laptop/pc. I like the old way =D

Oh, for sure. It's the same for me, not only in writing but painting as well. No inspiration, no 'Joy of Cooking'. It's a desert until the rains come. Also, I usually put pencil to paper when working on a story too, just to get an overview of the whole thing before I start. Once I've got something, I use Notepad to type it out, look for edits and adding colour and character before copy/pasting it into ATS.

With that said- I cant force it to flow before that final date.
And my daily routine, studying, work, etc- does not help to get in the right mood. LOL

Completely understood

Just curious on how this will be judged. Who will be doing the judging, and for example, will it be like 50% creativity, 20% topic/scary, 20% stars and 10% grammar, or something like that?

I'm kinda excited about this, but I am no 'writer', and this is the 1st contest here I've entertained the idea to enter..... I just gotta come up with something now.

Originally posted by toolstarr
Just curious on how this will be judged. Who will be doing the judging, and for example, will it be like 50% creativity, 20% topic/scary, 20% stars and 10% grammar, or something like that?

Great question. Over the past few weeks, I've managed to pull together a fairly large group of members who are interested in judging writing contests. If only half are able to partake in any particular contest like this one, there will still be enough to work out clear winners. For obvious reasons, though, their identities will always be anonymous.

There is no common system for judging, though, and grammar certainly won't be a part of that since some of the submissions are coming from those who have English as a second language. I'd have to say it would be based mostly on how each judge was 'entertained' by reading as well as how creative the short story was.

I'm kinda excited about this, but I am no 'writer', and this is the 1st contest here I've entertained the idea to enter..... I just gotta come up with something now.

That's the hard part, isn't it? When I start a new painting, there's that damned blank canvas staring back at me and my pencil is just twirling around in my fingers. Make a mark, rub it out, make a mark, rub it out.

Thing is, sometimes you just have to start doodling and see what comes of it.

Like this:

It was a cold, dark night and rain slashed in sheets against the large front window.when sudden lightning revealed the hunched figure of a man standing just outside...

Its late and the reason for my reply is for ease in navigating back to the guidelines for the contest. This is actually a great opportunity at redemption for me. When I first came to ATS I made some boo-boos in some of my posts and replies causing me to gain significant negative points, something that has proven extremely difficult to remedy. And Ive written ALOT since that time , and golly its a slow process. But I suppose it was a good thing because I took it as a challenge, and that alone has been my biggest reason for staying here. And so far its been really worth my while and helpful in many ways. Ive discovered the most intelligent and intriguing people that I believe exist anywhere on the planet, and I would like nothing more than to not be in the red any longer. Its a personal challenge to me. Even if I dont gain any points I will stay at ATS until and hopefully long after Ive paid my virtual debt to the ATS society.


Thank you for the opportunity
Sincerely
psyko45

reply to post by masqua


Just got done with Tory's Den by illuminotreal and it's a pretty decent read.

This writing contest looks lots fun! I am going to try my best to write the scariest story I can think of!

Although I am up against some of the greatest horror storytellers, I can, at least, learn from them.

In case you missed these....

Boris Karloff - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde transformation
www.youtube.com...

FRANKENSTEIN - 1931 - TRAILER
www.youtube.com...

Frankenstein (1910) - Full Movie
www.youtube.com...

THE WOLF MAN - 1941 - TRAILER
www.youtube.com...

The Wolfman part 1/7
www.youtube.com...

The Wolfman (movie trailer only)
www.youtube.com...

Dracula (1931) Trailer
www.youtube.com...

Dracula, 1931 (part 1/8)
www.youtube.com...

Nosferatu Trailer
www.youtube.com...

Nosferatu (1922) - Full Movie
www.youtube.com...

Vincent Price - House On Haunted Hill - Trailer
www.youtube.com...

Lured - Boris Karloff scene
www.youtube.com...

The Strange Door (Boris Karloff)
www.youtube.com...

The Mummy Starring Boris Karloff 1932
www.youtube.com...

Boris Karloff's 'Thriller' - Doktor Markesan - Pt.1/5 - Dir. by Robert Florey
www.youtube.com...

Old Dark House 1/10
www.youtube.com...

And many, many more!

Good luck everyone,

Toni

Black Widow by Alice Cooper